Amanda Kubitz: The Calm Before the Movement

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) Senior Studio is offered each year to Stamps BA students in their final year of study. In the class, students and instructors combine individual studio work with a collaborative project: the production of a fully self-directed show from start to finish, emphasizing the skills and practices associated with producing professional exhibitions. This year, students under the direction of Professor Nick Tobier and GSI Michaela Nichelle also invested time in getting to know one another, conducting a series of peer-to-peer interviews to learn more about the process, inspirations, and practice of their classmates. Over the next few months, we’re reprinting some of these interviews, which were combined into a collection featuring studio portraits by Urvi Joshi (BA ​’25) and a cover by Riley Huhta (BA ​’26).

Amanda Kubitz

Interviewed by Anna Howell

Howell: How did you land on ballet as the subject for this project?

Kubitz: I just wanted to do something that was beautiful, you know? We don’t have a lot of choice in subjects for most of school, and I had been to a couple of ballet’s recently that reminded me of my own time doing ballet, so this piece was a way to relieve parts of my childhood.

You mentioned how ballet was something you did when you were younger, and dance is another form of art and expression. How, if at all, do you think that dancing as a child influenced your making now?

I feel that my style now definitely coincides with ballet in how ballet is very technical and detailed while still being really pretty, and each ballet dance has a story behind it, so I like to do something similar.

I noticed a lot of expressive brushstrokes even when you’re making fine detail. Is there any sort of correlation?

Yeah definitely, my past in ballet influenced me to add paint to the canvas in a sort of dancerly way with lots of movement and style, and I think my technique does that almost subconsciously. The expressiveness and movement in the strokes is a part of how I tell the story for each piece because dance is all movement.

You talked about how ballet makes a story, and you reproduce that in your own paintings. What story or emotion do you want people to get from viewing this piece?

I want people to have their own takes on the specific meaning but in general it’s supposed to have a sense of calm to it. To me, it’s like the calm before the storm. Being in a rehearsal is pretty stressful, loud, and just busy, but there’s this period before class or rehearsal starts that’s just, well, calm. A peek inside the intimate parts of ballet that you don’t get to see on stage.

So I remembered you mentioning your mom did ballet too. Did she do any other forms of art or expression? And did any of that influence who you are or what you do as an artist today?

Well, growing up she was the one who put me in ballet when I was 3, and just seeing her old point shoes, costumes, and leotards made me want to be a dancer. But she didn’t do any other forms of art, but, like, I feel it still influenced me to view art in a different way, which made me want to pursue art in college.

What ways do you think she influenced you to view art differently?

I think just in a more, like, delicate way. Kind of like how ballet is. The goal is to make it look easy, and that’s how I want my art to look to the viewer even though that’s not how my process is. My method of work is not very delicate or clean. It’s pretty messy and gross actually, but the viewer wouldn’t know any of that by looking at my finished work.

I also know you’re dual degree with psychology. Does that get brought into your work with how you depict things or storytell?

I definitely think it relates to the stories I want to tell in paintings and the meanings of them. I usually focus on portraiture, and the meaning behind each portrait. With my psychology degree, I’ve learned about a lot of different medical things related to the psychology of people, so I definitely try to combine both in my paintings.

I also noticed you’ve mainly used oil paint throughout your time at Stamps. I remember from sophomore year studio that was the medium you did all your pieces for then too. What reason are you drawn to this medium?

I really started doing oil paint seriously until college, and I’m more advanced in drawing actually, but I just really like how seamlessly you can blend it and how flexible it is. You can keep working and pushing an oil painting because it doesn’t really dry down like other mediums, and I really like being able to step away and come back without everything drying down and becoming stiff.

On a similar vein, this is a pretty big piece. What’s the reason for this size? Is there something that you think the size adds to it?

I wanted to do a big piece because this is my last year of college, and I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to do something like this again. I think the scale of it is a bit jarring which makes the message louder too.

Compared to some of your other portraiture, this piece is a distinctly different style. What was the inspiration for that?

For this painting, I was mainly focused on making it raw and simple, and kind of trying to emulate the movement and rawness of dance more so than in other paintings. I left a lot of the burnt sienna background which adds a warmth that I really love along with a lot of texture without overwhelming the viewer.

Any ideas about how you are going to work creatively moving forward?

I want to try and do more pieces of this scale. I enjoyed being able to see the detail clearer, and just the overall impact of a larger painting.

Path Forward, the 2025 Stamps BA Senior Studio Exhibition, was on view at Stamps Gallery from December 3 – 13, 2025. The exhibition worked to weave meditations on nature, the inner and outer workings of our human bodies from the functional to the phenomenal, the paces of daily lives whether reading or rushing, in friendship or in family and exploring memories of real and imagined pasts as they intersect with the here and now. Featuring work in experimental video, fashion, painting, illustration and sculpture, Path Forward postulates stepping stones for near and possible futures.